Wilton Cake 1 Class

Final project for Wilton Cake 1 class

Week 4: Twelve Pound Final

Yesterday was the last class of four of Wilton Cake 1.

The cake above was used to celebrate Tony's birthday since Tony didn't get to have any of the cake I originally made for him. (see week 3 below)

This is a 10" chocolate cake (Mom's recipe), torted and filled with 3 cups of Beranbaum's chocolate ganache and frosted with 7 cups of Wilton's buttercream. I didn't keep track of how many cups of icing the roses used, so I'm guesstimating 1 cup. That's 11 cups of frosting to complete the entire cake. (yikes!)

The final cake weighed 12 pounds! (technically, 11 lbs 12 oz)

Lesson learned: I used two cake rounds to support the cake but I should have used 3 or 4 because the base flexed a bit as the cake was moved from class to home, then from home to the workplace, causing the crusted buttercream to crack.

I can make roses! Finally!
Wilton's method teaches you how to make the rose in three steps over three weeks. In week two, we learned how to make the center cone (what the pedals attached to), In week 3, we learned how to make the center and three pedals around it, the last week we learned how to do the other two layers of pedals. The only thing that kept me from hating roses, was the fact they were my mom's favorite flower. It took me 60 to 80 tries before I had something that looked close to a rose.

Week 3: Send in the clowns.

This is the second cake I made. My frosting to ice the cake with was too stiff and the frosting to make the clowns wasn't stiff enough. Oh well, it's a learning experience.

And as my instructor, Karen Houdek, says "it's just cake" Does she know how many hours of my life I spent on this? :-D LOL

The clowns started out with great posture but they kicked back and relaxed on the drive home. When I open the box to show them to my husband, Rick, they were lounged back on their elbows looking up at us. I'm just glad they didn't lie down and take a nap! That would have looked too weird...
Lesson learned: Use a stiffer butter cream and let it set up before putting their heads on. Perhaps taking their heads off for the bumpy car ride home would help also. (I don't know if I can do this... clowns are scary enough with their heads on...) :-)

I made the cake by doctoring up a cake mix with sour cream, sugar, flour, vanilla and coffee. It came out really light and fluffy. It was very tasty but I was hoping for a dense cake.

My husband took this cake to work to celebrate his buddy's birthday... the problem was, his buddy (Tony) was on vacation. Rick (husband) took a lot of pictures of his co-workers eating the cake and celebrating Tony's birthday, then emailed the pictures to Tony. Guys are too funny!



Week 2: Our first Cake.

Our class used piping gel and wax paper to trace a rainbow pattern. We flipped the wax paper/gel on top of our cake and lightly pressed over the gel then removed the wax paper. We filled in the pattern using the star tip. I was surprised how much coloring gel you had to use to get a true color. The teens at our church ate this cake.



Week 1:Demo only

We met our teacher tonight. She wheeled a buggy full of items into the class to give us a demo. (little did I know that I'd be balancing a buggy full of my kitchen items with one hand and a cake to decorate in the other for the next 3 weeks. Ahhh. Ignorance is bliss.)

Karen, our teacher, explained how to make buttercream icing and frost a cake. Then she demonstrated both to us (making it look so easy) We were instructed to show up next week with a frosted 8" round cake that was 4 inches high, a cup of firm, medium and thin frosting for practice, plus enough frosting to decorate our cakes. How hard can that be? i-yi-i



Week 0:

Wilton had their classes on sale for half price ($17.50) last month, so I signed up for cake 1.
I had a 50% off coupon that I used on the required kit ($13) and thought all my spending was over. Ha! Not quite. I didn't keep track of how much I spent on powdered sugar, Crisco, and cake mixes every week. (denial is a good thing) ;-)

Cupcakes for a Baby Girl

Here are pictures of cupcakes I made for a baby shower for a baby girl. I wanted pink cupcakes, so I used a red velvet cake recipe and went light on the red coloring.

Angel on a cloud:

3 little bears:

The cupcakes below are supposed to be a baby in a baby carriage... The flowers are the wheels. The blue thing at the mouth is a pacifier. No matter how much my husband squinted, he couldn't see the vision I was trying to create. LOL

I decorated the cupcake stand instead of making individual cupcake wrappers as I did in a previous post.

Final presentation

If you decorate the cupcake stand keep in mind that the cupcakes will need to be displayed at eye level. Otherwise, the cupcakes on the lower levels will be blocked as shown below.

French Macarons

We agreed to have a low key, inexpensive Christmas last year. I wanted to make something nostalgic and special for my husband and his sister. I've often heard my husband talk about his grandmother's Anise cookies that were hard as a rock. (not exactly what I look for in a cookie...) When I questioned his sister about it, she too talked enthusiastic about those cookies. Aha! I can kill two birds with one rock cookie. :-) Now all I had to do is find a recipe.

After searching on the internet for an Anise cookie, I found the Caramel Cook's blog site with this Anise cookie (excuse me, Macaron)

Picture courtesy of Caramel Cook's website.

I had great success with his recipe and without realizing it, I had fallen under the spell of the French macaron.

Was the French macaron the rock hard cookie my husband and his sister remembered?
No, but they didn't care.... they really liked the macarons... and so did I.

When the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary contacted me this month and asked me to contribute something for a coffee they were hosting on March 2, I thought, what could be better than a French macaron. (did I mention the coffee would host 150 people? Yikes!)

I decided on a chocolate macaron and started searching for a recipe so I could practice making them. I started with David Lebovitz recipe.

Picture courtesy of David Lebovitz's website.


I appreciate the fact that he gives weights on most of the ingredients, however, I wished he would have included the weights for the egg whites too. (if you love to bake and you don't have a kitchen scale, buy one. You can find an inexpensive one at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I recommend one that has 1 gram increments. Read this article on scales that Rose Levy Beranbaum wrote for more information) I tried David's recipe using 50 grams, 62 grams and 68 grams of egg whites. I was successful at getting a foot on them each time and I loved the flavor but the batter seemed too thick each time.

Next I tried a recipe from Coco & Me

Picture courtesy of Coco & Me website.


She gives a lot of helpful insight into making macarons. The recipe's outcome was successful and tasty with a light chocolate flavor.

"Warning From Coco & Me:
This dessert is very difficult to master.
A perfect Macaron MUST have ‘THE FOOT’. It mustn’t come out cracked or wrinkled or have a gap between the shell and the foot. It must be round and be of the same size. (but they still taste great even if you don't master it) it’s all about trials & tribulations!"


Now, if like me, you become obsessed with Macarons, you need to visit Syrup & Tangs blog site. He wrote 5 excellent articles on Macarons. With this type of detailed explanation into the world of Macarons, I believe he could work for Cook's Illustrated.

Are you ready to begin your obsession?

Equipment you will need:
3-4 cookie sheets (you will start with cookie sheets stack on top of each other for the first 5 mins)
piping bag (you could use a freezer ziplock bag)
coupler or tip for piping bag that has a 1/2" opening
whisk (I use a hand mixer with a whisk attachment)

Final recipe I used:

90 grams powdered sugar
50 grams blanched almond flour
20 grams dutch processed Cocoa powder
68 grams egg whites, room temperature (old eggs, not fresh)**
65 grams fine grained sugar (caster*)

The day before making macarons, crack and separate 3 large eggs. (to store the yolks for use later, dissolve 1/2 tsp of castor sugar into the yolks and mix well. You can freeze them if you won't be using them right away)

On baking day, place a rack in the middle and top position of the oven and Preheat to 375 F /190 C

Place the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa in a food processor and process for 1 minute. Place to the side for use later.

Stack two or three heavy baking trays on top of each other. Line the top tray with parchment paper or a silpat. (I use parchment paper and draw 1" circles on the back so I can achieve the same size)



This is what happened when I forgot to use the extra baking trays. :-(

Whisk egg whites starting on low speed for first minute, then increasing the speed a little bit at a time every 15 seconds until you are at a medium high to high speed) When the whisk starts to leaves a trail through the egg whites (soft peak stage), gradually add the 65 grams of sugar. (You can add the sugar after the egg whites are foamy but it'll take you longer to get to the firm, glossy, compact meringue you will need)




When the meringue is at the stiff peak stage, sift half the dry mixture over the meringue and fold in with a spatula using a circular motion around the bowl and under the batter. Repeat with the remaining dry mixture. (It's better to undermix than overmix) The final mixture should be smooth and thick but flowing. (A ribbon of batter dropped from a spoon on top of the remaining batter should take about 30 seconds to disappear)

To keep the baking paper from slipping, dab a little batter under each corner of the parchment paper to anchor it to the baking trays.

Spoon the batter into a piping bag (I use a Pringle can or tall glass to hold the piping bag)



Pipe evenly onto the parchment paper. Mild peaks should settle back into the batter eventually. If they don't disappear, tap the tray repeatedly on the counter top until the peaks have largely disappeared.

Place the tray in the oven on the middle shelf. Set timer for five minutes. (a foot should form at 5 or 6 minutes) When the timer goes off, remove the extra baking tray(s), place a piece of aluminum foil on the top shelf to protect the Macarons from browning, change the oven temperature to 340 degrees F / 170 C, and crack the oven open with a wooden spoon. Re-set the timer for 5 minutes.


Remove Macarons from the oven and leave on the tray for a minute or two. Gently try to lift one of the outermost shells. If the shells stick badly, but are firm, try spraying or brushing a little water under the baking paper. Don't use too much water or the shells may start to dissolve around the edges. Cool on a wire rack face up.






When completely cool, apply a small dab of ganache or buttercream to the underside of one shell and gently press another shell on top of it.








Refrigerate for 24-48 hours. They taste better on day 2. After three days, they become softer.
(You can freeze the shells without ganache & buttercream for a couple of weeks)





Eat macarons at room temperature.



*you can make your own caster sugar by processing granulated sugar in a food processor for 1 minute
**because of the protective nature of egg whites, you can leave them out on the counter top for 1 day

Other websites to check out on Macarons:
Here's a Video of a charming French chef demonstrating how to make them.
Serious Eats

Baby Shower Cupcakes

The ladies at our church (Winchester Corp Salvation Army) pitched in to throw a baby shower for a member that grew up in the church and I had the honor of making the cupcakes!
I found my inspiration on the web.

The ducky ones I found were used to advertise these cute cupcake wrappers. However, at $1 a piece, the wrappers were not even considered. Instead I made cupcake wrappers using doilies given to me by a friend. (Thanks, Gale)

I used a 12 inch doily to make the cupcake wrapper

picture courtesy of AlamoSweets on cakecentral.com


A lot of people must have liked the edible pearls shown in the duck picture above because they were sold out every place I looked. I decided to make my own using royal icing. I tried piping orbs but they did not come out perfectly round. After a few trial and errors, I found that letting the odd shapes dry for 2-4 minutes, I could round them using my index finger and palm. When they were completely dried, I tossed them in Super Pearl dust to give them a wonderful sheen.

Since the baby was going to be a boy, I went with blue frosting and pearls.


Here's the finished product. Cute, aren't they?

I found the ducks at http://stores.ebay.com/Monkey-Dog-Balloons. They were easy to work with and they shipped my order very quickly. They even combined the postal charges on multiple items I ordered. I like that!


I fell in love with this baby bird cupcake from Martha Stewart's web site.



Unfortunately, my birds turned out looking more like the Michelin man. I overheard one person asking her friend "Is this a frog?" Back to the piping board for me. :-D
I used tip #12 for the birds. Next time I'm going to make the birds using the coupler without a tip and use longer strands of coconut for the nest.


The daisies were made using gumpaste. It's a lot of fun to work with.... it's a lot like play dough. It brings the kid out in you.

Rustic Apple Pie

I don't know why but I bought a lot of apples a couple of weeks ago. A LOT! I couldn't help myself. I went a little crazy when I saw all the different varieties available. I meandered around all the crates and containers picking up a couple of each variety as I went and before I knew it, I had a boat load! What's a girl to do? Make a pie!


Instead of making the typical pie, I went with a more rustic looking pie. (aka galette)

I keep extra pie dough in the freezer at all times for such an occasion. You can use any pie crust recipe you would like for your galette. If you want an easy (and tasty) recipe with photos, pop over to Simply Recipes.


Peel, core and slice your apples. (I used 4 granny smiths, 4 golden delicious and my favorite apple peeler/slicer) Toss the apples with 1 TBS fresh lemon juice and a 1/2 cup of sugar. Let them rest on the counter for an hour, then drain the liquid off into a sauce pan.



Caramelized the liquid over medium heat for 5-8 minutes.

To prevent a flood of juices from collecting in the bottom of the pie/galette, pre-cook your apples in the caramelized liquid for 10 minutes over medium heat to a temperature of 120 to 140 degrees. (This stabilizes the pectin and prevents the apples from becoming mushy when cooked for a second time in the oven. Temperatures over 140 causes the pectin to break down and you'll end up with an applesauce pie.)


Remove the apples from heat, adjust the flavoring to your liking (I sprinkle in cinnamon, a tablespoon or two of brown sugar and a slash of vanilla)

Let the apples cool for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Roll out your dough and place it on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put your cooled apples in the middle of the dough and fold the dough up leaving most of the fruit exposed


Mix a splash of water with an egg white and brush it on the exposed dough then sprinkle it with sugar and pop it in the oven.

Bake on the bottom rack 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees (until crust is brown and fruit is bubbly) Check the bottom of the pie after 35 minutes, if it is getting too brown, move it to the middle rack and lower the temperature to 350.

TWD: Chocolate chocolate cupcakes

After living vicariously through all the "TWD" bakers out there, I finally have jumped on the bandwagon. (Yes, the October deadline had a lot to do with motivating me)

This weeks recipe, Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, was selected by Clara of I Heart Food4Thought You can find the recipe on her website or on pages 215-217 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From my Home to Yours"

Although I carefully weighed all my ingredients and took the cupcakes out of the oven the second the tops of the cakes were dry and springy to the touch and a knife inserted into the center came out clean (21-22 mins) as Dorie described, I found these cupcakes to be on the dry side.

I only had one issue with the recipe... the step where you fold the melted chocolate into the batter, ...I scraped all the chocolate into the batter at once, grabbed my spatula to fold it in, and hit a big lump of chocolate! The entire amount of melted chocolate had solidified! grrrrrrrrr. (the chocolate was around 74 degrees, the cake batter around 66 degrees when I merged the two.)

I removed the big lump of chocolate out, wiped off all the cake mix that I could, and stuck it in the microwave until it was pliable again. Then I mixed it into the batter slowly. I think there were still some small pieces of chocolate that solidified but they seemed to have melted when I baked the cupcakes.

I wanted to do something different with the cupcakes so I used the vanilla cream filling that Baking Bites posted on her site. For half of the cupcakes, I used her method of filling the cupcakes ,

for the other half, I used a faster method... I shoved the piping tip into the cupcake and squeezed the pastry bag until the cupcake swelled. (some of them cracked because I squeezed too much. See the one on the left below)

The cupcakes using Baking Bites method (shown below) looked nicer and more symmetrical than the ones I filled by shoving the tip into. (shown above) However, I'm probably the only one who noticed.

I'm have a lot to learn when it comes to baking... especially when it comes to chocolate. I really, really don't like chocolate. Not only does it end up all over my kitchen, but it doesn't behave the way it's supposed to. Please leave me a message on what I need to do differently to get chocolate under control. Perhaps there's an obedience training class out there that you could recommend?

Tyler Florence Banana Bread

While visiting our daughters in Florida, the youngest, Carey, made this awesome banana bread. It was light, fluffy and delicious! As much as I love her and visiting with family, I couldn't wait to get back home so I could make it myself!

My first batch turned out heavy and dense (like most of my banana breads) It was tasty but I wanted light and fluffy. (picture a kid at the checkout stand at Wal-Mart pitching a fit because they wanted something... yep, that was me)
Exhibit A:

I emailed the above picture to her and asked her what I did wrong. I followed the recipe to a tee and it came out heavy and dense. :-( It turns out that she didn't follow the recipe to a tee. (She is so much like her Father... He makes little changes to a recipe and it comes out mouth watering... me, I follow a recipe to the tee and... well you get the picture) Anyway, Carey explained that she was out of plain flour that day so she used self rising flour plus a pinch of salt and baking soda instead. Amazing how little things make such a big difference!

While I was baking batch #2 (this time with self rising flour) I remembered that we ate the bread while it was still quite hot. Aha! Another clue! I let the 2nd Banana Bread cool for 15 minutes before I sliced it.
It was closer to hers but still not quite right.
Exhibit B:

I had 3 bananas left, so on the 3rd and final batch I sliced the bread as soon as I took it out of the pan. (10 mins)
Exhibit C:


You can find the original recipe at:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/banana-bread-with-pecans-recipe/index.html

The changes I made from the original recipe for the last batch of Banana Bread were:

I used:
2 cups (10 oz) Self rising flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
3 bananas (about 13oz /381grams)
and I folded the flour in instead of using the mixer.

In all three batches, my banana / sugar mixture never looked what I'd call a "light and fluffy banana cream" as described in the recipe. Maybe you can tell me where I went wrong...